


Your Hold Has Got Me Tight

by coatlicue



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: F/F, Gay, Hurt/Comfort, drunk cheryl, from a prompt on Tumblr, minimal angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-25
Updated: 2018-06-25
Packaged: 2019-05-28 05:56:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,406
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15042251
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/coatlicue/pseuds/coatlicue
Summary: “Hey,” Cheryl pouted, something which Veronica swore she could hear through the phone. “I don’t know what you said. I take French. I should’ve taken Spanish. It sounds so pretty when you speak it.”Veronica chose to ignore Cheryl’s drunk ramblings, instead opting to ask, “Cheryl, are you drunk?”-Or, Cheryl is drunk and stranded at a club, and Veronica is her first call.





	Your Hold Has Got Me Tight

**Author's Note:**

> prompt from the anon on tumblr, who requested "here let me" and "i might've had a few shots" from the list. title is from the song "in my head" by peter manos.

Veronica turned over in bed when she heard her phone blaring from the nightstand, cursing the skies and whoever was waking her up at such an ungodly hour. She swore she had put her phone on Do Not Disturb before she went to bed, and yet here she was being woken up at— she flipped her phone over—1:47 in the morning. 

When she saw the contact name, however, her heart did a little jump in her chest. _Bombshell_ lit up her phone, a single cherry emoji next to it. Cheryl’s suicide attempt at Sweetwater River had been a harsh and abrupt wakeup call. A glimpse into exactly how torn the redhead actually was by the Dickensian nightmare that was her home life and the death of her brother. 

Veronica vowed to be on alert with Cheryl, to make sure whatever had driven her to that dark place wouldn’t do it again. This promise had resulted in the addition of Cheryl’s contact into her _Favorites_ list. (Just in case the redhead needed something at nighttime).

As Veronica clicked the answer button, she prayed that this wasn’t the case. “Hello?”

Instead of an answer, Veronica only heard muffled sounds and bumping. So she tried again, “Hello? Cheryl, is everything alright?”

“V-Veronica?” Cheryl’s voice streamed through the phone, a little slurred.

“Hey, Cheryl.” Veronica reached over to turn her lamp on and sat up in bed. “What’s up?”

“Heyyy, Ronnie. We haven’t talked in a—” Cheryl hiccuped, “In a while. How are you?”

“I’m alright, Cheryl.” She said warily, quickly noticing how unstable Cheryl sounded. “Are you… okay?”

“Are you still dating Archie?”

Veronica swallowed, “No, Cheryl. We broke up after he kissed Betty. But you knew that already, so what’s this about?”

“He wasn’t good enough for you—Hey, watch it you pig!” 

Suddenly Veronica strung together the little details of Cheryl’s phone call: how late it arrived, the heavy sounds in the background that reminded her a little bit of a thumping bass, and the redhead’s slurred speech. 

“Ay dios mio, esta rubia va a ser el fin de mi.”

“Hey,” Cheryl pouted, something which Veronica swore she could hear through the phone. “I don’t know what you said. I take French. I should’ve taken Spanish. It sounds so pretty when you speak it.”

Veronica chose to ignore Cheryl’s drunk ramblings, instead opting to ask, “Cheryl, are you drunk?”

There was a shuffling sound on the other end of the line before her reply filtered through the phone, **“I might’ve had a few shots.”**

And even though Veronica had a million questions—like what the girl was doing taking shots on a Wednesday night, for example—she chose to ask “Where are you?” instead.

“I’m- I’m at a club. Innuendo.” Kevin had told her about Innuendo on her first day at Riverdale High, said it was a gay club just at the edge of town. _What was Cheryl even_ doing _at a gay club?_

“You know, Ronnie, for a gay bar, there really are so many gross straight men trying to pick up girls here.”

Veronica suddenly remembered the last time Cheryl had gotten this intoxicated at a party. Remembered holding her at the Pembrooke for hours afterwards as sobs shook her body so hard that she struggled to keep hold of her. And panic took hold for a moment, “Where’s your ride, Cher?”

“Um, I came with Kevin. He l-left with a Serpent, I think. He said he would be back. I don’t know how long it’s been.” 

“Can you call him?”

“I did, like three times. He didn’t answer.” Cheryl yawned, “Mm tired.”

“Wait, don’t sit down, okay?”

“But there’s a couch right here. Kevin got us into the VIP area.” The redhead’s words slurred and gradually got slower. 

“Just stay up for a little, I wanna talk to you a little longer.” Veronica said as she crawled out of bed and picked up the keys to the obnoxiously expensive car her parents had bought Archie before they broke up. 

“You do?” Cheryl said, her voice suddenly so soft that Veronica wouldn’t have heard it had it not been for the fact that the Pembrooke was dead quiet. 

“Of course, Cher.” Veronica pulled on a pair of leggings and a jacket before tumbling out the door. The only sound filtering through the phone’s speakers was the sound of Cheryl’s steady breaths. “I’m in the car, alright Cheryl? I’m coming to get you, just stay awake and don’t go anywhere.”

“M’kay V. I’m gonna—I’m gonna stay right here.”

Veronica typed the club name into Google maps and was there within ten minutes, silently thanking the gods for the fact that Riverdale was such an impossibly small town. The bouncer let her in without much of a fight when she told him that her very drunk and very underage friend was hiding in the VIP lounge. 

When she came into the club, she was barraged with bright lights and loud music. Veronica fought her way through several guys were grinding on each other in front of the entrance to the VIP lounge. 

It was Cheryl’s trademark red hair that caught Veronica’s eye first. Both when she first met her and now, where Cheryl had her head down at a table. Veronica approached her and laid a hand on her shoulder. “Cheryl wake up, we gotta go.”

When Cheryl didn’t stir, she shook her shoulder a little. The redhead woke with a start, looking so terrified that Veronica felt a little guilty and kneeled beside her, “Hey, it’s just me. Let’s take you home, yeah?”

“Okay.” Cheryl said.

Getting her up was a struggle, Veronica had to wrap an arm around her waist and sling one of the redhead’s arms over her own shoulders to get enough stability. And getting to the car without falling over was a bigger struggle, especially with those tall heels that she insisted on wearing everywhere. 

Once they got to the car, Veronica tucked Cheryl into the passenger seat and slid herself into the driver’s seat. “How’re you feeling? Sick at all?”

“No, I’m good.” Cheryl said while struggling to buckle her seatbelt. 

**“Here, let me.”** Veronica leaned over to buckle the redhead’s seatbelt for her, getting caught in strangely intense eye contact with her. 

“You’re so pretty.” Cheryl slurred, “I’ve always thought you were _so_ pretty.”

“You’re pretty too, Cheryl.” Veronica said, wishing she could record the redhead’s drunk antics and show it to a sober version of herself. She’d probably think it was hilarious. 

“No, I don’t mean you’re pretty in a ‘girls supporting girls’ feminist way, I mean you’re pretty in a ‘I like you and wish I could go to Hayley Kiyoko concerts with you and kiss you’ gay way.”

Veronica stumbled over her words. There had to be some truth to what Cheryl was saying, probably, but she refused to acknowledge it. Sure, she had felt those familiar butterflies in her stomach at the sleepover she had with Cheryl at the beginning of the year. But then she got with Archie and Cheryl got sad and everything got complicated. “You’re drunk in a ‘you don’t know what you’re saying’ way.”

“I had to get drunk or else I wouldn’t have the balls to tell you.” Cheryl murmured. “Kevin told me I should. Said he felt the sapphic tension a mile away at Jughead’s party. And I was going to, too. But then you got with Archie and I lost my chance.”

“You didn’t.” Veronica whispered, finally buckling Cheryl in.

“What?”

“You didn’t lose your chance.”

Cheryl looked up at her then, eyes all soft an open. “Can I kiss you?”

Veronica shook her head, leaning back in her seat to avoid looking at Cheryl and her soft lips, pouty and willing. “Not right now.”

Cheryl pouted, “Why not?”

“You’re drunk, Bombshell.”

“So?” Cheryl asked, eyes watery, shining with the sting of what she probably felt was yet another rejection. 

Veronica reached over to take the redhead’s hand into hers, “So when I kiss you I want you to have full control over what you’re doing, and trust me Bombshell, it’s something you’re gonna want to remember.”

“You’re not gonna let me forget I told you tomorrow, right? Please don’t let it go back to the way it was before.” 

Veronica gave Cheryl’s hand a squeeze, “Are you crazy? I wouldn’t trade this for the world.”

**Author's Note:**

> find me @ xiomarisol on tumblr.


End file.
